Kerala Day


Kerala Day also referred to as Kerala Piravi, marks the birth of the state of Kerala in southern India. The state of Kerala was created on 1 November 1956, long after the Independence of India. Before this, it was three major provinces and several outlying regions under various rulers.

Timeline

Prior to 1956, Kerala had been divided into three regions: Malabar, Cochin and Travancore.
Malabar comprises the northern coastal region around Cannanore and Calicut. This region had been ruled by the Zamorin of Calicut before being conquered by Tipu Sultan. It was then ceded to the British East India Company after the Anglo-Mysore Wars, and annexed to the British Madras Presidency. The coastal town of Mahe remained a French enclave until the early 1950s when it was integrated into the Union Territory of Puducherry. The central region comprised the erstwhile Kingdom of Cochin, administered from Thrissur. The southernmost province was the Kingdom of Travancore, based in the city of Thiruvananthapuram. While Cochin had been a vassal state under the British Raj, Travancore Kingdom was administered under suzerainty.
Early in the 20th century, the Mappila Muslims of the Calicut region revolted against the Hindu zamindars and the British Raj.. In the following years, agitations for political rights and a popular government took place in Travancore and Cochin as well. After India was partitioned in 1947 into India and Pakistan, Travancore and Cochin, part of India were merged on 1 July 1949 to form Travancore-Cochin. A popular movement known as Aikya Kerala, for the formation of the State of Kerala, gave an impetus to the reorganisation of the state on a linguistic basis.
On 1 November 1956, the taluk of Kasargod in the South Kanara district of Madras, the Malabar district of Madras, and Travancore-Cochin, without four southern taluks, merged to form the state of Kerala under the States Reorganisation Act. A Communist-led government under E. M. S. Namboodiripad came to power following the first elections for the new Kerala Legislative Assembly in 1957. It was one of the earliest elected Communist governments, after Communist success in the 1945 elections in the Republic of San Marino.

Events